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Nearly a quarter century, 24 years of exploration and construction of queer imaginary. With a discerning eye and thanks to a sharp and sensible look, year after year the Festival has grown into one of the most significant occasions promoting a frank dialogue between the GLBT community and the general public. The Festival has presented various Italian premieres and has marked the debut of significant film authors such as François Ozon, Gus Van Sant, Derek Jarman, Todd Haynes, Eytan Fox, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Alain Guiraudie, Auraeus Solito, Christophe Honoré and Brillante Mendoza.FESTIVAL SECTIONS International CompetitionsThree competitive sections with three international juries:Feature…

The 23rd annual Washington, DC International Film Festival (Filmfest DC) commences April 16 through April 26, bringing the best in new international cinema to the Nation’s Capital. The Festival features over 70 films from around the world including: World premieres, DC premieres, international headliners and award winners, Official Foreign Language Film Oscar Selections, and an assortment of films with topics unique to the Washington, D.C. region. The festival also boasts over 30 international guests set to present their films including many well known directors and producers. Since its inception in 1987, Filmfest DC has become one of Washington’s major cultural…

Two Cannes prizewinners, Paolo Sorrentino’s political drama “Il Divo” and Matteo Garrone’s mafia tale “Gomorrah,” topped the list of nominations for Italy’s David di Donatello Awards, to be presented May 8. “Il Divo,” which chronicles the career of seven-time Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti (played by Tony Servillo) and his ties to organized crime, was honored with 16 nominations, including best film, director, producer, actor, and screenplay. The film won the Special Jury Award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. “Il Divo” and “Gomorrah” also competed for best film at the European Film Awards, where “Gomorrah” emerged victorious.”Gomorrah,” which IFC…

Regent Releasing has opened THE SONG OF SPARROWS, the new film from Iranian master Majid Majidi, director of Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee CHILDREN OF HEAVEN, as well as THE COLOR OF PARADISE and BARAN today, Friday, April 10 at Laemmle’s Music Hall in Beverly Hills and Laemmle’s Town Center 5 in Encino. Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival and Iran’s selection for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2008 Academy Awards, Majidi’s luminous and humorous tale of morality and redemption was initially opened on Friday, April 3 in New York at…

44th Karlovy Vary International Film festival’s Forum of Independents pays tribute to one of the most idiosyncratic auteurs working today, the American writer-director Alan Rudolph, a protégé of Robert Altman. Always attracting top actors, Rudolph’s visual style offers a sort of rapturous expressionism, projecting the characters’ romantic idealism onto the external world through non-realistic lighting, the banishing of context and wonderfully apropos mood music from the likes of Leonard Cohen, Teddy Pendergast, Marianne Faithfull and Alberta Hunter. Remember My Name (1978), his second feature, is a real rarity, never released on VHS or DVD. Updating the classic woman’s melodrama, it…

New York – The Museum of Modern Art presents Kino! at Thirty: New Cinema from Germany, the Museum’s 30th annual survey of recent German cinema, from April 22 through 30, 2009. Over the last three decades, MoMA has celebrated new cinema from Germany with an annual presentation of contemporary fiction features, documentaries, student works, and animated films. This year’s selection opens with Germany ’09, a compilation of short films organized by esteemed German director Tom Tykwer. For Germany ’09, which premiered at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, 12 leading filmmakers working in Germany today take a look into the country’s…

The debut feature film from Director Florencia Manóvil is having its World Premiere at Method Fest in Los Angeles. Fiona’s Script centers around Fiona (played by Sonia Montejano), a writer who uses her art to escape from the pain of a break-up. However, the fantasy world she has created for herself doesn’t last long, as Fiona meets and falls for the charismatic ‘L’, who propels her toward the nowness and reality that she has been avoiding in her life. Owner of Mynah Films, Manóvil uses her work to give a voice to underrepresented groups, like women and the LGBT community.…

SPINNING INTO BUTTER stings and liberates the mind as it explores the complexities of racism. Award winning theater director Mark Brokaw (Cry Baby) makes his big screen directorial debut with Spinning Into Butter, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Beau Bridges, Miranda Richardson, Mykelti Williamson, James Rebhorn and Paul James. It is an adaptation of the Rebecca Gilman stage play with a screenplay co-written by Gilman and Doug Atchison (Akeelah and the Bee).The film centers around Belmont College, a fictitious liberal arts institution in Vermont with a progressive but ethnically disconnected student population. The grounds are pristine and its reputation, untainted and…

Eleven Minutes, is an exciting documentary that takes an “in your face” look at one fashion designer and his attempt to re-establish his career following a win on a reality TV series. The film, which opened in select theaters on February 20, is the actuality behind “reality TV”, emphasizing that instant success is not always guaranteed with the popular vehicle, while breaking the door open to the blood, sweat and tears behind the “glamorous” fashion world. Jay McCarroll is the winner of season one of “Project Runway”, a contest on the Bravo Network and cult favorite among fashionistas and reality…

For the second year running, CWB’s International Editor James Ulmer will file his exclusive daily video and online reports from this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, which runs from Feb. 5-15. Along with filing his regular festival column, Berlinale Unbound, from the Festival’s center in Potzdamerplatz, James will shoot, edit and produce the site’s Berlinale video reports and video blogs along with veteran film producer and CWB contributor Tanja Meding. With over 30 years of festival experience between them — this is James’ 12th year as a journalist at the Berlinale, and the 12th as well for Tanja as an…